I'm in...
Picked this one up Saturday , small issues repaired !
Plays great, will be doing a complete top teardown!
Is the POA difficult to remove?
5247917082062539225 (resized).jpg

The POA can be a pain to remove, because you need to remove a lot of the surrounding ramps and hardware to access the set screw on the rear shaft and the screws holding the bottom half mount to the main playfield. You manual has a whole page dedicated to explaining it (pg. 1-47).

Poa is easy to remove.
5 mins if you've done it before.

Yep it's putting it back on that's the problem

Of course, I'll even take a vid for ya

Everthing coming off regardless...

Thanks all for the advise

Lao's Antidote Deflector-Protector Update...

I've a list of interested folks here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11nD2RZnNf3VHWYTyTVtXyvln9uA4hbOW5QK7jVhbGS8/edit?usp=sharing

If you are not on the list and want to be (or think you should be because I missed you... sorry) please let me know ASAP. I will be closing this list on Monday October 5th 2020 @8:00A EST. That doesn't mean you won't be able to get one if you don't get on the list... read on.

I have a small batch of the production run going out late this week/early next to my early adopters and folks that have been helping me out. I DON'T anticipate any issues... but you know... stuff just happens. If a tweak is to be made I will need to do so... HOWEVER then:

... I will be making the 8 of them available to the people listed in my interested spreadsheet at a discounted rate... $15-US $25-International. The only thing I ask of you ... if you find the defector to be a winner... please feel free to share your experiences. If its a dud... well ... we won't worry about that now will we I will be choosing your name at random using https://wheelofnames.com/ because its kind of fun... and takes me out of it! PLEASE if you get chosen as one of the 8 for the special pre-release... I would ask that you actually install the product and use it right away... if it's going to sit in a box please let me know as I need it to go to people who are ready to run with it.

After the 8 are shipped... I will be opening my pinside shop "Pin-Ups" where you will be able to purchase the Lao's Antidote going forward. I will stock enough to cover my entire list... and maybe a little more.

Thanks!
Jim

Um, Monday October 5th...

derr!

Ricochet, please add my name to the list.

Thanks!
John

On The List!

I reseated all of the ribbon cables. Now, when I turn on the power, only the two “lite hand of fate” lights and and pop-bumpers and lane lights in both the regular Playfield and the POA come one. Pinsound does boot up, but no DMD and no start button. If I open the coin door and push the escape button, I get all of the lights to start the flashing cycle, but nothing else. Any suggestions?

Just sent you a PM. Please add me to the list.

Ricochet, add me for one
I didn’t see my name on the list.

Sorry I missed you... you did ask yesterday...thanks... added

Please add me to the list! Thanks!

I would like to get on the list. Thanks!

I checked all of the fuses (found 2 bad and two with jump wires soldered to them) and replaced the batteries. DMD now works, and everything boots up okay. Seems like all solenoids are now not working at all. Nothing would fire in the test mode. The red LED light on the Rottendog control board for 50V is not lighting up. As I understand it, the solenoids run on the higher voltage. Any thought on what to look for next? I am at least making some progress. Thanks for helping a Noob.

When doing the solenoid test you remembered to close the coin door? As the open coin door disables the high voltage (which is used for the solenoids)

Thanks for pointing that out. I was trying to run the test with the coin door open. I feel like the kid who wore slip-ons to kindergarten on the day they were learning to tie shoes. Unfortunately, when I powered everything up this morning with the door closed, none of the solenoids would work anyway. My DMD also went out again. Something must be causing the fuses to blow. Any ideas on the culprit?

You may have a driver that is stuck on... this could cause your high voltage fuse to pop. If you got fuses blowing you are going to have to start checking all the load points. This is likely entirely separate from your DMD issue... unless you have some really crazy power issues across the entire system. Difficult to diagnose and speculate without really getting your hands dirty... sometimes you get lucky with the usual culprit issues.

Its going to take some time and patience to get through your issues. Take a picture of the back box electronics... (a good quality picture) so the overall condition of it and good enough that all of its connectors can be examined (it may take multiple pics). Common issues can often be solved with a quick question... but when you have multiple faults... you kind of have to be systematic about it.

Thanks for the advice, Ricochet. I am just starting to learn about this stuff. Learned through YouTube how to solder, in anticipation of buying my first machine, DESW, which I still really like. I have a cheap multimeter, but do not know how to do much with it other than check for continuity and polarity. Much steeper learning curve with IJ, with optos, different flipper technology, and more PCBs than DESW.

Sometimes faults can also be found with careful visual inspection. Especially when you are talking about thermally fatigued connections, previous hackery, poor assembly or burned parts. Always start by looking.

I have both pins. DESW was a good intro, but IJ is a monster. Never be afraid to fix it. Be careful with R2, Deathstar (and gate), and IJ idol lock. All are very hard to find. Everything else is available

F116 is the fuse that blew. I think that was one of the ones I replaced last night. Chart says it is the 12v secondary. Should I look at the manual to see what it is connected to, and go from there?

Yes F116 is unregulated 12V

Another nit: the opto switch for the lower right ramp is not working. I spoke to a guy at Marcos, who said that the transmitters usually go bad first, because the IR beam clouds the plastic over time. I replaced that one, but the switch still doesn’t work. I then pulled the receiver and see that it has some damage to the surface, like some type of gouge on it. I replaced the receiver, but still cannot get the switch to trigger. Can someone send me a picture of theirs so I can tell if my wires are hooked up properly or tell me how to get this right? Also, is there some way to make sure they are still aligned properly? This reminds me of the sensor or my garage door the stoops someone from getting squished by the door lowering. Thanks again, Dave

What does that mean in layman’s terms?

It’s just not conditioned properly for logic power. It is primarily used to power all of your opto transmitters ... that are connected to the boards under the playfield.

Perhaps my right ramp opto problem is related? Last night, when I was in switch test mode, I was messing with the right ramp receiver and kept getting a message that the idol switch and another opto were being triggered.

Disconnect all of your opto board power connectors. Replace the fuse.

Turn on the game. See if F116 holds. You can repeat this and re-connect each board one at a time until the fuse blows. Be sure to turn the power off before you reconnect.

This could help to isolate a potential short that may be causing your fuse to pop

Looks like there are 10 of these suckers. I guess I have my work cut out for me. Just finding them all is going to be a challenge for me.

They are concentrated on the 10 opto PCB... it’s towards the back left. When you tip up your playfied it will be on the bottom towards the cabinet.

I think I found the issue. Wire to opto transmitter on lower right ramp was trapped against the metal support for the ramp, cutting into the insulation and shorting out the wires. Sonnofabitch! I think I can put a little electrical tape on there for now to see if that is sufficient. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

The manual has very good info on optos and the whole game.

Download it and print it out and spiral bind it.

What's the best way to clean the brass ball guides!?

I use nev r dull.
Brasso is too abrasive for plate.

Thank you

Update: got everything working again! I was looking through the manual, and determined that I put the J104 connector into J105 by mistake. I must have been reseating there connectors and plugged it into the wrong place. What a great feeling when it starts working again. Thanks for everyone’s helpful suggestions!

I have the manual, but the schematics are still a bit like hieroglyphics to me. I did get the lower ramp switch working again. Unpinned the wire and put some liquid electrical tape on the trouble spots. I hope the wire inside was not too damaged. I’d hate to have to re-run all that spaghetti.

Crap! I spoke too soon. After 3 games, the DMD went out on me again. Same fuse F116 (3A SB). Could it be an issue with my Color DMD (LED)? I installed it about 3 weeks ago and it was running very well right out of the box. I am also noticing some problems with the POA lately. Seems to work fine one one pass up there, then it won’t respond to anything the rest of the game. I was actually running the test on the POA when the fuse blew last and knocked out the DMD. It went through one cycle of the test fine, but when I switched to continuous, the fuse blew.

Old POA motors, opto boards and motor control boards can pull a bit more power than the spec.

They might be 30 years old.

^^^ this. Your POA motor as well as your idol motor are also driven by the same power source as your opto transmitters. Not sure how old your motor gear box is ... sometimes they get gummed up and put extra load on the motor.

You may want to also consider replacing your POA opto board while you are in here.
https://www.thepinballwizard.net/circuit-boards-and-assemblies/williams-indiana-jones-path-of-adventure-dual-opto-board-a-16657/

Hey, while we're troubleshooting, I've been having an issue lately that I haven't been able to figure out yet.

If my game sits in attract mode for a while, let's say about 20-30 minutes, suddenly the diverter on the right ramp will start to flutter. I will hear it, like it's very weakly and very rapidly engaging the solenoid. If I look at it, I can see it moving just the slightest bit. I haven't done a deep dive into it yet, but maybe someone has a quick insight? Is the coil failing, or something else? Everything works fine during gameplay.

Hey while I'm at it and into pig piling on this one: help me understand the ball locking mechanism. Mine is constantly locking balls (even when no balls are present). Since everything seems to always be optos when it comes to problems with this game, I'm assuming there is just something that is artificially coming in contact to disrupt the opto for some reason. But just so I can understand this mechanism (because it's hard to see when the playfield is up and the ball won't naturally pass through that tunnel): the ball goes past the drop targets, and disrupts the first opto when it goes into the tunnel circled in green, then travels down the trough to interrupt another opto (circled in blue) that slows the ball down, then the plunger -piece 8- moves out of the way and allows the ball to fall into the VUK that puts it into the idol?

Screen Shot 2020-09-30 at 10.14.32 AM (resized).png

That plunger locks the balls in the trough...counting them and preventing them from pig-piling (to use your term ) into the up-kicker. You either have a dying transmitter or dirty/dying receiver. Its a "normally closed" circuit... meaning that the ball will interrupt the light source and cause the switch to open. If a sensor isn't picking up light... it will signal to the computer that something is interrupting the signal (that something should be a ball)

Since that is in the resting position... I would guess it has something to do with the coil drive circuit... maybe its not holding off properly... that's weird. That is driven by your Fliptronic II board.

Check out this topic
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-indiana-jones-idol-troubleshooting-guide#post-5623060

Contained within It explains what happens when you lock a ball.

Complete tear down under way

IMG_20201002_1223270 (resized).jpg

I just finished mine.

Not too bad, lots of operator hacks lol.

Patched some wires.

But over-all on my game, ive seen a lot worse.

Canr wait to tear it down for the total resto next summer !